Plants vs. Zombies review for PS Vita

The only way that you haven’t played Plants vs. Zombies by now is if you’ve been actively avoiding the game for the past couple years. It’s been made available on PC, iOS, XBLA, hell; even the Nintendo DS got a port of the game. So by now you should have a pretty good idea of what it’s about, but if not, I’ll prep you a bit for this review of the game on the PlayStation Vita.

Plants vs. Zombies is a simple strategy title that could be grouped into the popular tower defense genre. Your battleground is a backyard, where zombies emerge from foliage on the right side of the screen, in an attempt to cross your yard and (I’m theorizing here) get to the sweet brain meat residing inside the house you need to defend.

And defend it you do, with a variety of plants, which is certainly an unorthodox tool in undead management. Plants vs. Zombies really excels at its player progression mechanics, doling out new plants and plant upgrades in nearly every round, or every other round, which keeps that carrot on a stick momentum going throughout the dozens and dozens of levels within.

The overall gameplay is simple, easy to learn, but hard to put down. And it’s nice to note that no matter how many times I’ve played the game, I still put a lot more time into this port than I had planned on, due to how addictive the damn thing is.

As far as ports go, this is legitimately one of the best versions of the game you’re going to get. It looks glorious on the OLED screen, with the cartoony art style really shining through in the bright colors and zombie variety. The touch screen controls are super-intuitive, and the game has no technical hiccups or flaws to speak of. Like other versions of the game, there’s also online leaderboards to participate in, and even though it’s a downloadable only title on PSN, it comes with a full trophy list including a platinum trophy.

There’s not really a lot to mention outside of the fact that it’s a great port of a great game, and if you want another device to play Plants vs. Zombies on, it’s worth checking out. I don’t have any real negatives to level at the game, other than it being pretty much identical to the versions that came before. A few more system specific bells and whistles would go a long way in making this a must have title for previous fans, but as it stands you’ll still derive a lot of enjoyment out of the game.